My review of The Purge is one I wish I could have back. I was too hard on the film and even though The Purge wasn’t a perfect film. It probably didn’t deserve my full wrath. My major problem with The Purge was the waste of a brilliant concept. A yearly holiday where all crime is legal without consequence from law enforcement with the purpose to keep society in line throughout the year. The problem was The Purge chose to keep all the action confined to a house where a family was just hiding out. That’s not very interesting. To be honest it’s rather boring at times. The more intriguing story is what’s going on outside closed doors in the madness of the Purge. What would compel a normal individual to go hunting for someone who wronged them or maybe did nothing at all. Producers must have listened to the cries from critics, because now audiences will venture out into the violent world of The Purge: Anarchy.

The Purge: Anarchy is a complete 180 from the last film. No more are we stuck with a single family hiding out in a fortified home for an entire movie. The Purge: Anarchy drops multiple characters for the audience to follow in the middle of the sadistic Holiday. This time around we get to see the acts of violence being carried out whether it’s with a baseball bat or a futuristic Gatling gun. It’s pure madness and it’s exciting to see our characters try to navigate and survive the mayhem. We also get to see whats makes a certain group a target and the motives behind the hunters who are releasing the beast.

Without a doubt what makes The Purge: Anarchy a vast improvement over the previous installment is Frank Grillo. Grillo is the man with no name on a mission hunting down a very personal target during the Purge. Grillo is channeling his inner Frank Castle as good bad man doing bad things with an arsenal of weapons including a bulletproof car. Grillo is the only character we truly care about and that was fine by me. The guy is a one man killing machine trying to carry out his own brand of justice to the person that took everything away from him. We wanted to see what drives a person to go out into the horrors of the city on Purge night and Grillo delivers.

The Purge: Anarchy delivers on the action, thrills and horror this time around where its predecessor failed. The film proves that outside the fortress is much more fun to watch instead of hiding inside of it. Sure the script is weak at times and there are characters we could care less if they got purged or not. Still The Purge: Anarchy keeps you guessing throughout the film. Plus Grillo is one bad dude as he takes on a slew of killers in entertaining fashion. Give The Purge: Anarchy a chance to redeem the franchise. It’s a sequel that corrects the mistakes of the original.

I'm CW44's Media Critic, 44 on the Town Co-Host and one of the top Pop Culture nerds in Tampa Bay. I help make the decision whether to see it or skip it when it comes to movies. Voted runner up in Creative Loafing's Best of the Bay 2015 for Best...